Protection was never the biggest part of the entire project. But it was an important part. Growing more frustrated as he went to washington b couldnt get firm ananers about when the money might come. We go to the congressional part the corps. The corps tells us to go to the office of budget and management. The y tell us to go back to cononess. You know those days on the merrygoround after three or four times you get dizzy commitment for the dollars has changed how the city will start the flood protection construction this year. Originally, the idea was to build up the 100year flood right after the 2008 flood. Instead the city will start ccser to newbo, a lowewesection more vulnerable to high water. It could also mean doing more smaller projects. But thats not an overwhelming problem. Theres some advantages to it. We cacakeep the money localal and instead of bidding a 50 Million Dollar project. Lets bid seven Million Dollar contractors and control it better davis says the flood protection construction this year will amount to about 13Million Dollars. Getting those federal dollars would mean doing more faster. But at least the work is getting underway. The mayor says hes not ready to ve up on federal dollars for part of the future flood protection and the city will keep after it. But he says it may be time for the city to make plans that dont count on that portion of the funding. Live in cedar rapids, Dave Franzman kcrg tv9 news. Lets turn now to meteorologist joe winters. Its been great to see some sunshine today. High pressure builds into the area keeping us with a brighter outlook toward the weekend. We stick with partly cloudy skies sunshine returns in full l rce saturday. Highs will also be on the rise from the 40s to the upper 50s on saturday. A cold front slides into the area bringing cooler weather and a chance at some measurable precipitation on friday. Have a super night tonight partly cloudy low 2329 winds nw 515tomorrow partly sunny high 3642 winds w 515 bruce and beth. A federal judge today sentenced a cedar rapids businessman who mislabeled meat to two years in prison. 74yearold midamar founder bill aossey will also have to pay a 60 thousand dollar fine. During the sentencing hearing, the judge scolded aossey for not telling the truth during his trial in court last year. A jury convicted aossey on 15 of 19 federal charges for falsifying documents sale of misbranded halal beef products. Aosseys conviction called for 9 to 11 years in prison. But the judge cut the sentence to 24 months due to aosseys age and unlikeliness he would commit another crime. The attorney for the man accused of raping and killing a dubuque woman says his client cant understand the charges against him because of a mental disorder. The public defender for 20 year old Helmon Betwell has requested a hearing to determine if betwell is competent to stand trial. Betwell is facing charges of first degree murder and first degree sexual abuse. Prosecutors say he raped and then fatally beat 66 year old nancy krapfl on a dubuque street last september. Attorney Thomas Goodman wants the court to suspend criminal proceedings against betwell until after a competency hearing. Dubuque police say betwell admitted attackinggrapfl simply because he had Nothing Better to do. He faces life in prison if hes convicted. Resolution today to amend the state constitution to protect peoples electronic data from Law Enforcement searches. The resolution specifies that authorities would need a warrant to search someones electronic communication s and data. This would strengthen the state which already specifies protections for a persons body, home, physical belongings and documents. The resolution now goes to the senate. It would also need full legislative approval next year in order to go ttiowa voters in 2018. Republican senator jonernst today inoduced legislation today that would limit president Barack Obamams power after the november elections. The midnight rule relief act would establish a moratorium period beginning the day after the election through the next president s inauguration in january. During that time, the executive branch wouldnt be able to create regulations that would cost the economy 100 Million Dollars or more annually. Republican senator from the bill. Donald trumps rivals for the republican president ial nomination have their last chance to challenge him tonight before super tuesday. The ninth gop debate will take place in five days before texas and 10 other states hold primary elections or caucuses. Right now, trump is the frontrunner with three victories under his belt. Marco rubio, ted cruz, john kasich, and ben carson are still in the running. You can see the debate tonight at 7 30 on cnn. The white house says its expediting Financial Support for the us territory puerto rico. The Obama Administration is allocating 400 Million Dollars for roads and other public works projects in hopes of spurring economic development. Puerto rico has 72 billion dollars in public debt that the governor has said is unpayable. Today, treasury official Antonio Weiss told a l hearing that Puerto Rico Needs to be able to restructure its debt. Yes, there has been financial mismanagement, yes there is need to be reduced. Foxx was visiting puerto rico today. The White House Says Congress also needs to give puerto rico the protection under a framework reserved for us territories. A non Profit Research group in iowa city is creating awareness ofofare diseases. The john paul the second medical Research Institute is launching a rare genetic disease program, and hope to find cures to those diseases using adult stem cells. Rare disease day is on the last day of february every year. But researchers at the institute are dedicating the entire month to reaching out to people suffering from rare genetic diseases, and the doctors who treat them. Kcrg tv9s brady smith visited the groups labs in coralville today, and joins us live in the goal . They want to recruit 100 patients into their patient registry, who are willing to donate blood and tissue samples. From those samples, the institute can isolate adult stem cells and reprogram them into other types of cells for example, brain cells and then from there, try to develop therapies or cures for the diseases those patients suffer from. Ceo jay kamath gave us a tour of their labs in coralville today. He says there are roughly 7thousand diseases in the world that affect about children. His team is trying to get stem cells from people who have those diseases, so they can work with other institutions and Clinical Trials to find cures. Kamath told us the major probl is that Rare Diseases dont get the funding or attention they deserve, and that often, involved in effective. His brother and Research Scientist anant kamath aimed at other, more 10 39 48 we want to treat people for endstage cardiac failure, we want to treat people who potentially have alzheimers disease. We want to develop better drugs, because our drug pipeline is extremely weak. The institute gets its funding from private sources. For example, they got a lot of money for lou gehrigs disease or als through the ice buckck challenge that ran rampant through social media a while back. Coming up tonight at 10, well hear from one of the families kamath and his team have already helped through their research. For more information on how to join the institutes patient registry, you can find a link under this story on kcrg dot com. Live in the newsroom, brady smith, kcrg tv9 news. Financial aid experts say students are making some costly mistakes when it comes to securing Financial Aid for college. Northeast Iowa Community college is undertaking a new initiative to steer students away from those common pitfalls. High pressure builds into the area keeping us with a brighter outlook toward the weekend. We stick with partly cloudydykies through friday y s the sunshine returns in full force saturday. Highs will a,so be on the rise from the 40s to the upper 50s on saturday. A cold front slides into the area bringing cooler weather and a chance at some measurable precipipition on friday. Have a super night low 2329 winds nw 515tomorrow partly sunny high 3642 winds w 515tomorrow night mostly clear low 2531 winds 510saturday sunny and mild high 58 low 28 sunday partly cloudy, mild high 57 low 44 monday partly cloudy high 50 low 34 tuesday chance of rain snow high 43 low 35 ednesday mostly cloudy high 39 low 30 thursday partly cloudy high 41 low 28 thanks joe. The university of iowa is turning to a type of plant the university of iowa is to power its campus. It wants to use 40 Percent Renewable Energy by 20 20, and it hopes a type of grass will help itet there. Stay with your 24hour the campus. Today farmers harvested giant miscanthus grass from a Research Field in iowa city. Burning the grass in its power plant. This is the second time the university has harvested miscanthus grasses, which appear to be an effective source of energy. The university recently planted the grass on about 350 additional acres and will harvest that next year. The school says its a good use of state resources. This keeps dollars for energy in iowa, so theres no coal or Natural Gas Resources in iowa, but we can grow our own fuel and give that money to farmers instead. The university has a goal to be using 40 Percent Renewable Energy by 2020. More students are taking online courses offered by iowas three public universities. A new report from the iowa board of regents shows during last school year, 25,570 students took at least one online course. Thats up from the school year before, when 22,858 students took one or more online the most Popular Online courses included topics on management and marketing, education, and family and consumer sciences. The board of regents says its trying to increase online learning. The iowa lottery is ending sales of one of its instant scratch games. Lottery officials announced today that players have until may 26 to claim their prizes in the 5x scratch game. Officials say games that end are replaced with new games throughout the year. Players can visit iowa lottery retailers to claim their prizes. Northeast Iowa Community college is working to help incoming students figure out what their debt could be after graduation. Financial aid exports say many students dont know what types of loans theyre taking out, and that can lead to trouble. Stay with your 24hour college is taking steps to educate its students about the amount of debt they might face. They say they want parents and students to understand how much debt they can expect after graduation. The white house says roughly 71 percent of those earning a bachelors degree graduate with debt. That debt averages 29,400 dollars. The institute for College Access and success found the class of 2014 graduated with an average debt of 29,732 dollars just in iowa. Thats the sixth highest in the nation. Kcrgtv9s Dubuque Bureau chief Katie Wiedemann joins us now live. Katie, what do students need to know about keeping their debt low . The biggest thing they tell incoming students, is to make a Loan Management plan. The college gives High School Seniors tools like this to help them figure out their expenses for all four years of college before they Financial Aid specialists say many students have no idea what theyve borrowed for school. They just fill out the paper work, take the money and the debt starts to pile up. They say theres also a lot of confusion about what types of loans students are using. Advisors say unsubsidized loans accrue interest while they are in school. While the government pays the interest on subsidized loans while the student is in school. Nicc says students high loan debt is a big problem, not only for them, but for the entire community. If students have high student loan payments after graduation, they dont have the money to buy the house. To buy the cars and to contribute to the economy, because their money is tied up in the student loan. Nicc staff are working with iowa film maker adam carroll to help lay out College Expenses for prospective students. Starting next week, nicc will broke, busted and disgusted that documentary features iowas student loan situation we have a list of dot com. Live in peosta, Katie Wiedemann kcrg tv9 news. Well be right back. Stay with tv nine. Developing a riverfront crossing district. Action. An a bill to expand iowas trespassing law passes in the senate and is heading to the house. S these stories and more tonight on tv nine just in to the tvnine newsroom, a judge has ordered midamar pay a 20thousand dollar fine for mislabeling and selling meat as halal. It also must forfeit 600 thousand dollars and will be on probation for five years. That means it must make certain changes to the company, which include firing jalel aossey and William Aossey from the business. A federal judge today sentenced midimar founder bill aossey to two years in the mislabeling meat scandal. Hell also have to pay a 60thousand dollar fine. Breaking news. Were on the scene, the deadly tornado outbreak. At least eight dead, including a 2yearold. More than 30 twisters from texas to pennsylvania. Homes destroyed. This truck blown over on the gw bridge in new york. The coast guard trying to save this boat. The showdown tonight. Is this the last chance for the other candidates to try and take down donald trump before super tuesday . And, the eyeopening new poll tonight from marco rubios own state of florida. Is trump unstoppable, even there . Just 24 hours after our exclusive with apples ceo, tim cook, the fierilyreery moments on capitol hill today. And just tonight, apple answers the judge. New reporting tonight a aer a passenger jet slams into a runway. The emergency evacuation. And sylvester stallone, coming back into focus